


What Lingers Above The Ice

by EdwardNotSoLittle



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Baby Sea Monsters, Birthing, Body Horror, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Eggpreg, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Inspired by Fanfiction, Other, Pregnancy, Sea Monsters, Sick Character, Stomach Bulge, Tentacle Monsters, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:14:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdwardNotSoLittle/pseuds/EdwardNotSoLittle
Summary: Jopson's pov watching Edward struggle with the aftermath of the sea monster attack.
Kudos: 14





	What Lingers Above The Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SouthernGentleMonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernGentleMonster/gifts).
  * Inspired by [What Lingers Beneath The Ice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26292475) by [SouthernGentleMonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernGentleMonster/pseuds/SouthernGentleMonster). 



> Gift fic for SouthernGentleMonster! A Thomas POV to accompany their wonderful Nedward tentacle monster fic. Hope you enjoy it dear!

When Lieutenant Hodgson came busting into the Great Cabin both pale faced and babbling nonsense about a sailor's collapse and walking back to the ship without clothes, nude in fact, Thomas had watched Captain Crozier's face turn blotchy red with outrage.

"Sir!"

Jopson was marveled how ever quiet, soft spoken Hodgson was able to stop their Irish Captain’s notorious temper with the shark bark as if he were speaking to an unruly sailor.

He figured it had shocked their Captain more than anything.

Immediately, Hodgson paled looking very nervous for the tone of disrespect, "It's Lieutenant Little, sir. This needs your immediate attention."

The color drained from the Captain’s face, and he couldn't help his own mouth from dropping open in shock. 

_Edward?_

His sweet Edward? Collapsed? On the ice? Naked!

He looked at Captain Crozier with desperation in his eyes.

Though they had tried to keep their relationship a secret, the Captain, being the smart, observing man that he was, had eventually caught on. Surprisingly, giving Thomas a warm knowing look and had uttered a soft, _Just be careful, son._

Captain Crozier nodded, understanding. "Jopson, if you will go to sick bay and tell Doctor Goodsir that I will be there shortly."

He wanted to bawl at the older man's compassion. 

"Right away, sir." And with that he practically sprinted fore to sick bay. Right on time to see Lieutenant Irving and the Ice Master Thomas Blanky hoisting his unconscious lover onto the examining table. 

His entire body was pale with cold even his lips were blue, yet oddly his hair was plastered to his face with sweat despite the frost on his eyelashes. The perspiration was dripping down his neck and shoulders and he was trembling. 

Doctor Goodsir was fetching a bundle of furs while he and Mr Blanky eased Edward out of his great coat. 

Jopson gasped at what he saw upon parting the fabric. 

Edward's body was covered in bruises, but that wasn't the most obvious thing. No, really had Thomas worried, horrified, and puzzled was the sight of his lover's stomach. 

His belly was slightly distended, bulging with several lumps, that were pushing against the walls of his flesh. 

"What is Christ's fucking teeth is that Doctor?" Blanky gruffed.

Doctor Goodsir inspected the bulging skin, noticing a ripple of movement from inside the unconscious lieutenant's abdomen. "I… don't know."

Jopson wasn't listening to them, he was staring. He reached a tentative hand out to run over one of the bulging lumps. It felt firm yet squishy inside his lover. 

It _wiggled_ underneath his touch and he gasped, pulling his fingers away. 

Doctor Goodsir looked at him in question.

"It… it moved, sir." He stuttered.

Goodsir bit his lip, he didn't like the looks of this. He shifted his gaze down and noticed a bit of red between the lieutenant's thighs. Jopson followed his gaze and frowned.

Blood. There? 

_Oh._

This itself required the utmost privacy. He felt tears gathering in his eyes and unable to bear the sight, he pulled the furs from the kind doctor's arms and covered his lover's body protectively. 

_Who_ did this to him? 

No.

_What_ did this to him? 

Just as Goodsir opened his mouth, likely to ask them to leave, Captain Crozier finally made his way into his sick bay. 

"Bleedin' Christ! What the hell's happened?" He asked visibly upset by the state of his second. 

"Boy collapsed on the ice. He was naked as the fuckin' day. Flauntin' in nothing but 'is boots and his damn coat." Mr Blanky offered up. 

Thomas was horrified at the details and he could see the Captain trying to process the information. 

Doctor Goodsir was trying to assess Edward, he palpated along his neck and chest with careful hands. 

"One would think his skin would be cold, sir." The man's nervous voice sounded, "but the lieutenant's hot to the touch. Like a fever. I don't understand how his extremities hadn't blackened from cold." 

Thomas was baffled as he lowered the furs back down to Edward's waist to get another look, glaring when Doctor Goodsir tried to stay his hands. "Please, Mr Jopson despite this fact-" 

Edward let out a small groan and Doctor Goodsir was immediately trying to rouse him. "Lieutenant, sir, can you hear me?"

Brown eyes opened but they looked far away, confused and painfully, very scared. His body clenched with pain and Jopson saw some of the bumps protruding through his belly shift and move within him. 

Doctor Goodsir was scribbling something on a notepad briefly.

It was not natural. 

"Thomas…!" The poor lieutenant bleated in panicked desperation and his head tried to turn. 

Unable to help himself, he stepped into Ned's line of sight, tears in his own eyes as he placed a gentle hand on his bruised face. 

"I'm here, Ned." He reassured, trying to keep the tears from his voice.

Edward whined and leaned into his touch. "...hurts... Thomas… it hurts…" he gasped out. 

Eyes were on him, a silent realization for a couple people in the room. 

Jopson gave Edward's hand a comforting squeeze, "I know, It's going to be okay though." 

Almost as soon as he'd spoken the words, Edward succumbed to his exhaustion once more and then he heard the Captain speaking, "Gentlemen. Dismissed, I'd like a word with Doctor Goodsir." 

He looked at the Captain skeptically, not wanting to leave his lover's side. However, he dutifully turned around with the two other lieutenants and made to leave when Captain Crozier called to him, his voice firm.

"Mr Jopson, I'd have you stay here." 

Relief flooded his veins and he turned back around to face him, one hand behind his back as he awaited further instruction. "Of course, sir." 

Once the others left, Crozier sighed and beckoned him forward so the three of them could speak. 

"Doctor, what manner of injury is this?" 

"He was violated, sir." Thomas choked heavily on his own voice.

"What?!" The Captain’s face turned scarlet almost immediately. 

Goodsir was prodding at Edward's belly in various places, nudging at the bulging, wiggling lumps that pressed out from within. They had begun to move on their own without stimulation. 

"I don't know if this is an injury Captain… I err… these things inside him are alive. I'd say parasites… but, the shapes they," he paused, biting his lip nervously, "but surely this isn't… physically possible." 

"What? What is it? Spit it out man!" The Captain snapped. 

Doctor Goodsir was nervous and Jopson could clearly see it, he was sure the Captain could too.

"They almost feel like eggs, Captain."

They both stared and the captain had to steady him. He felt faint.

Did he just say eggs? 

As in something impregnated him?

Him. Edward. A man. Impregnated. 

Doctor Goodsir moved to lower the furs passed Edward's hips but peered up at them in consideration of the lieutenant's privacy, "Gentlemen, I'd like to check something if you don't mind."

Captain Crozier, still red-faced with outrage as if this was some sort of joke, reluctantly turned around, as did he. Jopson has seen Edward naked plenty of times but he knew better than to further volunteer even more intimate details of their relationship. 

He could hear Edward let out an indignant noise in his sleep and Jopson could only imagine what sort of indecent position the Doctor had Ned in to inspect that damage that had been done to his body. 

The doctor let out a nervous noise from behind them and Edward a pained whimper, _I'm sorry, sir. I am m trying to be gentle._ He heard the doctor try to reassure. There was a soft squelching noise followed by Edward whining and the rustling of movement. 

"Significant tearing… whatever did this to him was not gentle and… is this?" The doctor trailed off and Jopson couldn't stop himself, he turned around. 

The doctor had rolled Edward onto his side and adjusted his left leg so it was hanging over the edge of the table… and leaving him exposed. The idea of anyone seeing _his_ Ned in such an intimate position made him bristle and he fought not to say a word.

"Good Lord…" the small fuzzy doctor sounded alarmed.

Curious Jopson approached and was mortified to see that he'd actually pulled something out of his lover's body. 

It was roundish, with a flimsy, gel-like sac filled with liquid. Inside it was something dark gray in color and sprouting many legs that fluttered occasionally, pushing against the sac-like shell confining it. 

"He is… full of them…" the doctor muttered, staring in awe at the wriggling egg in his hand.

_Oh God… is that what's inside him?! Ned… what on Earth happened?_

Jopson was absolutely horrified. 

Doctor Goodsir eased Edward onto his back again and straightened him out. He pulled the furs back over his body to give him back some modesty. The doctor met his eyes apologetically, clearly aware that it had not been an easy thing, for him to let another man touch his lover so… privately. 

He watched as several of the faintly visible lumps wiggled inside Edward's belly. Taking a seat in the single chair by the examination table he took his hand in his. Tears were prickling at his eyes, the fact that something so horrible had happened to his Ned. Kind, sweet, loving Ned who showered him with adornments every time he had a chance. 

_What monstrous creatures…_

"These... things, they are inside his stomach?" The Captain’s voice barely registered as he talked to Doctor Goodsir. 

"Some of them yes. There was yet one that hadn't reached that far… that's…" the man trailed off. 

"Can't you just cut them out of him?"

There was a tense, eerie silence until Doctor Goodsir finally replied.

"Captain… that would be a major surgery… that could take time and needs to be done by more than one pair of hands. He very well could bleed out on the table…" 

"Bleedin' Christ!" 

Jopson ran a calloused hand over the slight curve of Ned's stomach, and gasped when he realized that since they'd been talking the movements inside him had become more frantic. The solid lumps had vanished and instead he could feel the swarming squirms of movement from little tentacle covered creatures within. 

There was a noise behind him and he could vaguely comprehend the doctor crying out in surprise when the egg apparently hatched in his hand. 

Quickly, he turned around just in time to see the doctor toss the slime covered beast into a jar that he clamped a lid on. 

"Gods, that's what's inside him!?"

Edward began to whimper and pant heavily, his eyes were opening again and Jopson could see sweat dripping from his hair onto the table. His stomach was visibly swelling with the creatures as they were no doubt hatching from their eggs in the heat of his body.

The creature in the jar let out a distressed shrill chirping noise and it seemed to cause the other creatures in Ned's belly to respond with further movement. Jopson could see the pressings of small tentacles against his flesh and Edward cried out deliriously; _Stop, please get out of me._

It was at this point that the Captain left the room, he didn't call for him, simply told him to assist Goodsir in any way he could. 

* * *

Jopson was miserable. It had only been a fortnight since Ned was brought back aboard the ship, having collapsed on the ice after going through a horrific ordeal he couldn't even imagine. 

Currently, he was sitting beside the bunk that Edward had been moved to while Doctor Goodsir was sitting at his desk dissecting the little creature that he had pulled out of his lover's body. 

Since Edward had been moved, his belly had begun to swell into a more rounded state and the creatures inside him seemed to become more active. Upon further assessment, Doctor Goodsir had established that they were growing in size within the lieutenant's body. 

The doctor still wasn't sure if he could remove them, but at this point the Captain was beginning to insist on it. He himself didn't know what to think nor what to do. 

On one side of the argument, Edward could very well bleed to death from such a major surgery that the doctor would have to do by himself since the deaths of their surgeons. 

However, on the other side, the doctor was concerned that the monsters may grow too big and quite possibly damage the man's insides… and it could eventually kill him.

To Jopson, it sounded pretty hopeless. 

Edward would wake occasionally, very disoriented and words slowed down. He was in obvious pain, but there was little that could be done. For now, opium seemed to be working in easing his discomfort, but it was requiring three thimbles, a higher dose than what was normal. From what the good doctor explained, he was less worried about running out as he was making Ned dreadfully _ill_.

He understood _exactly_ what he meant by that. 

His poor mother… he understood. 

* * *

It was nearing the second day that Edward had been in such a state and Thomas was intently concerned. Ned's stomach had grown even bigger, completely rounded with this abominable pregnancy from this horrific ordeal. 

Doctor Goodsir, upon dissecting the creature and studying its anatomy, had found most alarming discoveries indeed. 

These monsters had narrow passageways within their limbs and inside them beneath their organs, a hollow chamber where the doctor had found tiny, pearl-sized spheres that he had a feeling were the very same type of eggs that had been pumped into Edward's body. He'd theorized that Edward encountered one of these monsters, an adult of a mature state and it assaulted him, mistaking him as it's mate.

Edward had become more fitful throughout the day. He'd been prone to wheezing spells that would leave him gasping for breath.

_A creature's pressing on his diaphragm_ , Goodsir had said nervously whilst trying to poke and prod at the area to get it to move. Oh his Ned had wiggled and whined at the pressure.

Doctor Goodsir was just outside treating someone for frostbite. They had barred off sick bay for Edward's privacy, but also trying to keep the situation quiet. 

A sharp gasp from his love caught his attention. His eyes darted to look at the Lieutenant and found him wide awake. 

His sweaty hair was clinging to his forehead and face, he winced and cried as an obvious pain coarser through his body. His eyes were dilated to the point they looked almost black as they darted back and forth in confusion. 

Jopson watched him try to curl his legs to his chest in an attempt to relieve his pain only to pause, gasping sharply when his legs bumped into his swollen stomach. 

A tense moment of silence filled the room as Edward stared up at the ceiling, his breathing picked up and just as he'd opened his mouth to speak to his love, to comfort him, Edward screamed. He screamed and began to flailing, desperately trying to get the furs off of him. 

"Oh! Edward please!" He cried tearfully, wanting to do nothing more than pull him into his arms. 

Once the blankets had fallen, Edward's eyes were wide and horrified looking down at his robe-covered body. Tears of pain and unbridled fear sparkled in his dark eyes and he shrieked at him, "Don't _touch_ me."

Jopson took a step back, his appearance undoubtedly betraying him as the words bit deep and he had to remind himself not to take it personally. 

“You will have to let us look, to see what’s wrong. You were found quite ill and you have slept two days time.”

All he could was watch miserably as Edward ran a hand along his swollen belly staring in absolute terror. His face was pale and his bottom lip quivered as he tried to fight back tears. 

As the Lieutenant struggled into a sitting position, he was making an effort to keep his back to them, so Jopson didn't quite see what had happened, or what Edward saw but he could tell he'd lifted up his robe to look. "No." came Ned's terrified whimper before all the sudden the man groaned in pain, slick and slime began to gush from such a private place, soaking the bed and blankets and furs.

When Edward cried out in pain, clutching the sides of his massively swollen belly Thomas quickly stepped forward and pressed lightly on his shoulders. "Edward. Edward please lay down." He tried, but it seemed like everything said wouldn't register to him.

He could see the flesh on his stomach bulging and moving as the creatures moved about and Edward began to sob with pain, didn't even fight his hands as he eased him back down. Doctor Goodsir came running to them with his instruments in a flurry but abruptly dropped them. 

"Mother of God." 

Alarmed, Jopson tried to see what had the doctor so worked up and that's when he saw the small tentacles slithering out of the lieutenant's entrance, the things flailing and groping at the air as poor Edward sobbed. 

Eventually he let out another noise that caught Tom's full attention. 

"S-Stop… ah– don't!" 

It was the plea that was breathlessly gasped out that caught his focus. 

Jopson could see how the older man's cock began to harden. Cheeks began to flush the familiar pretty pink they would when Tom's own member would be nudging at that one spot deep within him that always had him begging for more. Hips jerked back and then forward in small thrusts as if trying to meet friction in said spot. 

Through blubbering, panicked tears he and Doctor Goodsir were barely able to make out the words, _They are sucking on..._ before the poor man began screaming in pain.

He clenched Edward's hand between his own in an attempt to console him as the tentacles wrapped around the man's cock, the creature they belonged to using it for leverage so it could escape from Edward's body. It let out a small chirp and then a hiss when Doctor Goodsir scooped it up and tossed it into a large basin. 

Edward screamed and thrashed against his hands, he threw his body to the side and it wasn't until he caught sight of Edward with a knife in his hand that he realized what he intended to do. "No! Edward don't!!" 

Jopson scrambled to snatch it from his hands and instead he sent it skittering to the floor. Edward wailed and cried, batting at his arms as he threw himself off the table they'd nested up for him to rest on. He landed on the floor with a cry, another beast squirmed its way out of him and plopped onto the floorboards. Edward caught just a glance of it and shrieked, trying to crawl on his belly towards the knife that Doctor Goodsir ended up kicking out of his reach. 

“I have seen such horrors, I want them gone, I want them out please I beg of you.” he wept openly and it broke his heart to hear the words. 

"Oh! No, love! We can't let you do that... I can't… please, it'll be okay." 

Edward just cried, another creature forcing him open as more tentacles began to slowly wriggle out of his arse. 

Jopson noted how Ned had begun to pant heavily he crouched down on the floor to push sweaty hair from his face. "Hey…"

He wanted to soothe him through this horrific experience. Wanted to take his pain away. Normally such a gesture would help the older man go at ease. Not today. No, he continued to try to crawl after the blade. 

It broke his heart and he couldn't take it. 

He sat down on the ground behind the Lieutenant and pulled him into his lap. Edward thrashed against his arms, he cried, he screamed and Thomas was soon wrapping his arms around the man's broad chest to keep him upright. He was trying to keep the pressure off his sore stomach. 

The small creature was sliding from him now with a squelching noise followed by an eager chirp as it began to suckle on his cock. Thomas forcefully ripped it off and threw it into the basin with the other ones. 

_Damn things._

"Let me go, I beg let me end my suffering.” Edward sobbed. 

There was a thudding yonder of the door and Doctor Goodsir quickly scurried off at the sound of the Captain’s voice. Likely for privacy reasons.

“You are to let me see my lieutenant Doctor or there will be a price to pay.”

Jopson heard the doctor relent nervously and soon the door was yanked open and there was the wrath of the Irish itself. Red-faced, clenched teeth, and furious blue eyes.

“Please… help me…” Edward cried as he 'birthed' another beast, this one crawled across the floor straight towards the Captain who brought his foot down upon it with a force, it shrieked in pain and stilled. 

“Edward you must tell me what did this.” the Captain insisted as Goodsir practically poured some laudanum down Edward's throat. 

His love was struggling, it was very obvious. He was panting and he was trying to speak but his words were starting to become hard to comprehend. Instead coming slurred with delirium. "A… beast."

Jopson tightened his grip on Edward's chest as he tried to jerk free with a kick. He buried his face in Ned's sweat slicked shoulder and tried to comfort him whispering close to his ear, "It's alright… I have you. It is going to be fine." 

“Has God forsaken me Captain?”

Those words hurt. Edward was not a huge man of faith, but Jopson knew he did cling to a sliver of it. The idea of this breaking the poor man's faith was agonizing. He looked up and met the Captain’s concerned blue eyes. 

“Perhaps, but I have not.” He met the Irishman’s eyes just before he stood. The man walked to speak to Goodsir, occasionally the two passed them looks but Jopson couldn't hear the conversation through Edward's screams of pain. He kicked and flailed and it was taking Jopson everything he had to keep a hold of the larger man. One last concerned look from the Captain and the man retreated from the room leaving the three of them again.

Another pitched sob from Edward and Jopson felt one of the beasts crawling on himself. He yanked it off and tried to toss it in the basin but the little thing was covered with enough slick that it made it hard to grip its little wriggling body and it flopped in Edward's lap. Edward who screamed and struggled to his feet in an attempt to get away from it. 

He staggered, almost wiping out on the large puddle of slick that had come from his body, every time growing with each of the _birthed_ creatures and the fluids that covered their bodies. Jopson shot up and caught him around the waist.

"Get everything out. Sharp things, needles, knives, guns, everything get them out of this room." He ordered Doctor Goodsir, forgetting himself. The doctor didn't protest, instead he scurried off and did just that. 

Jopson supported Edward's weight as best he could, the poor man writhing against him and trying to fight off his hands as he panted, screamed, and sweated profusely. "Edward…" he tried once more to soothe, but the lieutenant's mind was far away. 

When doctor Goodsir returned he had a couple leather strops in his hand and he looked uncertainly at him.

_Oh._

Were they really going to do this to the poor man?

_Oh Ned…_

"For… er.. his own safety I'd think it may be best to restrain him." 

He didn't know if he approved of the idea or not, even as Edward had begun clawing viciously at his stomach, screaming and swearing at the beasts within his swollen belly. Regardless, he nodded and helped coax Edward to lay down on the table. It took a full conversation with a blubbering mess on repeat but he did manage to convince him that he'd feel less stress if he were to lay down and breathe. With how delirious he was, Edward didn't register that they were strapping his wrists down until they were nearly done with the second one. 

When he finally did realize _what_ they were doing that was another story. He howled. He swore. He spat a litany of colorful words that Thomas had never even heard First Lieutenant Edward Little say before. 

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" he pleaded with him only to get a slurred tongue lashing along the lines of; _I am a ranking Lieutenant you will get your paws off me_ and though Thomas wanted to do nothing more than slap the man, both offended and exasperated, reminded himself that Edward was scared and in pain. 

He tried to get enough leverage with his back and legs but with his _condition_ it proved to be too much taxing on his body and he simply slammed his head back on the pillow with a mixture of both an agonized wail and a frustrated groan. 

Edward's was _very_ hard and Jopson swallowed guiltily for feeling a slight bit of revulsion. He knew there were things about this they didn't understand. 

Part of it Edward surely couldn't help? After all, the poor man seemed to be in an extraordinary amount of pain. Yet his arousal was clearly evident. His cock was completely engorged, probably painfully so, standing tight against his belly, his stones full, and the thick red tip– freed from its foreskin– was copiously leaking thick pearls of white that dribbled down the side. 

Such a sight would normally have his mouth watering but given the circumstances…

Thomas could see a couple outlines of squid-like bodies pressing against the flesh of Ned's modestly haired belly and the poor man writhed against the restraints. He saw how Ned's legs strained as movement pulsed against his innards while the beasts looked to escape his body. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated from the medication yet enlarged with adrenaline it was a strange mix that just had them not looking right. 

_Maybe…_

He bit his lip and tentatively reached out with two hands. He placed them on Edward's sides and began to massage gently up and down, transversing tenderly, carefully, over his swollen stomach trying to coax the creatures in the right direction. 

With his hands on the lieutenant's abdomen he could not only see but feel the devils inside his lover moving about, he could feel the wiggly bodies pushing against his palms and fingers and he thought of when he was a child and his mother had been with with child, it was so unnatural to feel this on a man. A sob from Ned broke these thoughts. "O-Out…" 

He looked up sympathetically meeting his wet eyes.

"I'm sorry, sir, I'm trying to help." 

"Get them out of me! I want them out right now!" He cried, squirming.

He could feel muscles in his abdomen clenching and seizing beneath his hands as one of the squid-like creatures squirmed and wiggled through his stomach and was soon emerging from his entrance. This one drew a shrill scream from Edward, the pain was getting worse.

He went wild.

"Mercy! Please, just make it stop!" 

As he was thrashing Thomas could see another creature passing through and soon emerging, this one was a little larger than the other ones that had been born from Edward before and it looked a little different. It made a hissing sound and Thomas wasted no time grabbing the closest thing he found–a book– and hitting it as hard as he could until it ceased moving. 

Ned's stomach was starting to shrink a tad bit the more beasts exited his body and Tom brushed the man's hair with his fingers before applying more careful pressure on his lover's impregnated stomach. He began to try to continue and help the devils along to exit Edward's body, apologizing to the agonized man every now and then. He just wanted it to be over as well. 

He had no idea it would be hours til the last one finally slithered from Edward's hole. No idea how his recovery would take weeks due to internally bruised muscles and organs. 

All he knew was it was over. 


End file.
